Can Governments Legislate Morality?

We have an axiom in our culture that is repeated every time a law is in dispute, and it goes something like this. I'm sure you've heard it. Perhaps, God forbid, you've even said it. That it is said of governments you cannot legislate morality. Have you heard that expression? Can't legislate morality.

Now, on the surface, prima facie, that is a ridiculous statement. It is an exercise in absurdity. In a word, ladies and gentlemen, it's silly because if we mean by that you can't legislate morality, and this is the way it's used again and again and again in public debate, is that the government ought not to be involved in enacting laws or passing legislation that curbs, restrains, or restricts human behavior or morality. Well, think of it. If we would eliminate moral concerns from legislation, what would Congress be left to do in terms of the enactment of laws? Pass laws regarding the state bird? But even that would have ecological and therefore ethical and moral ramifications.

When we say you can't legislate morality or the government ought not to legislate moral issues, are we suggesting that there ought not to be government laws against murder or that murder is not a moral issue or that theft is not a moral issues? Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think government does? The basic purpose of legislation is to enact laws that are heavily weighted with moral concern.

It is a moral issue how I drive my automobile on the highway because I'm not a law unto myself and out of my own convenience, I may become a reckless driver and a clear and present danger, indeed a menace to the safety and the livelihood of anybody around my automobile. But the law puts restraints on my desires. It takes away some of my freedom to express myself with the automobile and establishes a limit in terms of what speed I may drive without transgressing a law and making myself culpable to a fine or imprisonment or both. That's the business of government to legislate morality.